Insecurity: Government’s inertia threatening civic life

That insecurity has become an albatross in Nigeria is no gainsaying. Saddening report revealed how no less than 65 persons mostly members of the local vigilante were ambushed and killed by bandits in border communities in Niger and Kebbi states between Sunday and Tuesday. Report gathered reveal that the killings took place in Tungan Magajiya, Rijau local government area and Paikpa village in Munya local government area of Niger State and Sakaba local government area of Kebbi State. According to report, 60 local vigilantes were killed at Sakaba, a border village between Niger and Kebbi States, Sunday night, at about 9:00p.m. in an ambush. Just as a number of persons were abducted, in Unguwar Isah, Sakaba LGA, an undisclosed number of cattle belonging to the people of the village were carted away by bandits. Further event on Monday disclosed the killing of a leader of the local vigilante known as “Yansa kai” Kottor by bandits and scores of villagers were also taken hostage.

On Tuesday, bandits were reported to have launched a dreaded attack, killing no less than 60 local vigilantes and other civilians in Yombe area a few kilometres away from Dirin Daji town. It was reported that the vigilantes from Sakaba in Kebbi State and their counterparts from Tungan Magajia and Rijau in Niger State were said to be on a joint patrol along the area due to the incessant gunmen attacks on the border communities when they were ambushed. The breakdown of the casualties revealed 12 of the victims were from Rijau, while the remaining 48 were from Sakaba and Tungan Magajiya. It was gathered the vigilantes had suffered intelligence mishap as their trailing of about 100 gunmen after receiving information about their movement was visited with an unfortunate fate of an informant who disclosed their movement to the gunmen who laid the ambush and murdered the local security men.

Report from Paikpa village in Munya local government area, showed gunmen killed no fewer than five villagers while several others were seriously injured in a midnight raid. An unspecified number of cattle were also recorded to have been stolen from the people by the rampaging gunmen, whom report noted stormed the community at about 11:00pm, riding on motorcycles with each of them carrying AK47 rifles and other dangerous weapons. The gunmen were said to have entered the village through Luwi community making the villagers scamper for safety, after which the gunmen raided Njita and Chibani where they kidnapped many people and rustled cattle before making their way to Paikpa village. According to report, the gunmen operated for several hours searching all the houses in the village before moving into the Chikun forest in Kaduna state, without any response to distress calls to the security men stationed at Sarkinpawa.

In response to the killings in Kebbi,  President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday had said his greatest preoccupation was the threat to life by murderous gangs and merciless outlaws without the slightest regard for the sanctity of life. Buhari who charged security agencies to be more proactive and redouble their efforts to frustrate the plans of the terrorists before they launch attack, decried “the brutal murder of tens of vigilante members in Kebbi State by bandits who ambushed them in the Sakaba/Wassagu Local Government Area.”

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Mallam Garba Shehu, quoted the President to have said: “This egregious level of criminality is shocking and I want to assure Nigerians that I will do all it takes to tackle this monster decisively. My greatest preoccupation is the threat to life posed by these murderous gangs and remorseless outlaws who have no slightest regard for the sanctity of life. While extending my sympathy to the families of the victims of this savagery, let me use this opportunity to also call on our security forces to be more proactive and redouble their efforts in order to frustrate the operational plans of the terrorists before they even launch attacks.”

That situation is degenerating to assume the hobbesian colouration of the state-of-nature, where in anarchy, life is poor, nasty, brutish, and short is apparently not far from sight. The effrontery of gun-wielding arsonists, unleashing mayhem on innocent citizens, dispossessing them of their properties, and as such rendering the society in the state of panic, fear and disorder, has grown beyond the tolerable limit.

The scourge of the activities of bandits, deepening with frenzied notations, have continued to portend ravaging impacts on the socio-economic fabrics of the Country. The crumbling of economic activities and social life has left unsavoury records across the whole Federation. The direct impacts on the regions worst affected by the scourge of bandits’ operations and terrorists’ escapades have seen life becoming unbearable for many.

The political climate has not, in anyway, been spared from the scourge, as fears over possible disruptions of the 2023 elections have been expressed. Worries on impacts of insecurity forces against the prospects of the general elections have been a subject of top concern. Projections of voters’ apathy for fear of been attacked while trying to exercise their civic obligation has been raised as a strong force which may deter and pull citizens back from active participation in electoral processes.

It is now glaring that insecurity has begun to crumble the socio-economic and political life of the nation. The constraints it is putting before citizens is such largely restraining them from a normal civic life. It has become of necessity for the Government beyond mere expression of emotional concerns over rising killings in the Country to, as a subject of emergency, redefine security responses with indefatigable architecture to annihilate the networks of insecurity forces brewing winds of disturbances in the Country.

The plights of Nigerians from the scourge of insecurity have become too deep seated beyond a light burden. It now behooves the authorities to, as a matter of responsiveness to duties, arise with concerted force against the deformities. Rebuilding the relics of the crumbled estates which insecurity has ravaged, would only take the reckoning of possibilities when the working force of the networks of insecurity forces are heavily terminated.